Australian author James Bradley, acclaimed for his literary contributions across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, has once again captured readers’ attention with his latest novel, Landfall (Penguin, 2025). The work is a compelling crime thriller set against the backdrop of a climate-ravaged Sydney in the year 2050, where rising sea levels have permanently transformed the cityscape.
Bradley’s career has long engaged with environmental themes, notably in his 2024 non-fiction book Deep Water, an elegiac reflection on the planet’s oceans and a call to urgent climate action. Landfall builds on this legacy, following the speculative futures explored in his earlier novels Clade (2015) and Ghost Species (2020).
In Landfall, Sydney is a city overwhelmed by the consequences of global warming. Following the “Big Melt,” a catastrophic glacier collapse two decades prior, much of the metropolis lies underwater. The narrative depicts a society grappling with extreme heat, severe humidity, water scarcity, and deepening socio-economic divides. The wealthy inhabit climate-controlled high-tech enclaves while poorer communities are confined to precarious, flood-prone zones, including the “Floodline” area — a reimagined Botany Bay.
The story follows Senior Detective Sadiya Azad and her partner Detective Sergeant Paul Findlay as they investigate the disappearance of five-year-old Casey Mitchell from the Floodline. Their inquiry is complicated by the approach of Cyclone Nasreen and the simultaneous disappearance of Nina Lukic, an employee of Horizon, the company overseeing redevelopment projects tied to the city’s new seawall and housing.
Bradley’s novel is notable for its vivid portrayal of climate refugees and the fractured human experience in this near-future world. Through intertwined perspectives — Sadiya, her father Arman Azad who suffers from dementia, and Tasim, a 15-year-old Indonesian asylum seeker living on Sydney’s margins — the novel explores themes of loss, survival, and resilience. Arman’s recollections of fleeing floods in Bangladesh, Sadiya’s relentless determination in the face of tragedy, and Tasim’s harrowing memories of a scorched Indonesia enrich the central narrative and deepen its emotional impact.
Landfall also integrates advanced technology seamlessly into its speculative setting, depicting ubiquitous AI, surveillance systems, and constant digital connectivity as normalized aspects of daily life for all social classes, highlighting both their benefits and dangers.
Bradley crafts a tense and urgent narrative, structured across five days, intensifying the suspense as authorities prepare for a devastating cyclone. The novel skillfully balances the thrills of a crime investigation with social commentary on inequality, environmental degradation, and human empathy.
While the plot involves elements of greed, corruption, and social unrest, Landfall ultimately emphasizes compassion and community. The characters’ acts of kindness and courage — from police officers to marginalized individuals like Tasim — underscore the enduring humanity amidst chaos.
Landfall is a cautionary tale as much as a crime novel, warning of the social and environmental crises that await if climate change continues unabated. Bradley’s evocative storytelling challenges readers to confront the consequences of inaction, offering a powerful meditation on survival, morality, and hope in an uncertain future.
